Formation of La2Zr2O7 on yttria-stabilized ZrO2(110) single crystals during vapour–solid reaction

La2Zr2O7 (LZO) islands were grown on yttria-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) (110) single crystals by reaction between La2O3-vapour and the heated YSZ single crystal. The samples were investigated by AFM, XRD and TEM. The pole figure of the LZO(440) plane shows that LZO islands on YSZ(110) are slightly tilted around [11¯0] with maxima at tilt angles of ± 0.6° and by ± 0.9° around [001]. We explain this behaviour by interfacial dislocations with a Burgers vector component perpendicular to the interface, which causes the tilt, and a component parallel to the interface which accommodates the LZO/YSZ lattice misfit of + 5%. The shape of the LZO islands can be explained by the assumption that {111} planes are energetically preferred.